Both Heritage Action for America and FreedomWorks urged lawmakers to vote “no” on the House bill, arguing that it does not go far enough on Obamacare. Both conservative groups included the vote on their annual scorecard, with a “yes” voting serving as a blemish on lawmakers credentials.

Text Size

-

+

reset

The organizations’ stances are closely watched by conservatives and could directly affect whether House Speaker John Boehner can get 217 Republicans to support his legislation — in fact, shortly after the groups’ announced their opposition, the House Rules Committee said it had delayed a meeting on the bill, which was scheduled for a Tuesday night vote. The vast majority of Democrats are expected to oppose the GOP measure to avoid an Oct. 17 breach of the debt ceiling and end a two-week government shutdown.

The House bill includes language proposed by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) to eliminate federal contributions for lawmakers and aides to use on Obamacare insurance exchanges, but does “nothing to stop Obamacare’s massive new entitlements from taking root,” said Heritage Action for America in an e-mail blast just hours before the expected vote.

“The proposed plan will do absolutely nothing to help Americans who are negatively impacted by Obamacare,” Heritage Action said in an alert to lawmakers. “Americans are clamoring for a way out of Obamacare, not another Washington-style punt.”

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said in an alert that the House GOP plan amounts to a “full surrender” by House Republicans.

”The House leadership amendment contains a provision that would require Members of Congress and their staff to live under ObamaCare on the same terms as other Americans,” Kibbe said of the Vitter provision. “Sensible though it is, it’s insufficient. It does nothing to shield the rest of America from a law that is being unfairly implemented and is rapidly proving unworkable.”